Donte Stallworth was sentenced to 30 days in jail for hitting a pedestrian with his car while being drunk in Miami. As weak as a 30-day jail sentence looks, Stallworth got a ton of other punishments for a crime that he wasn't completely at fault for.
Along with the 30 days in jail, Stallworth got eight years of probation, two years of house-arrest, a lifetime driver's license revocation, 1,000 hours of community service, and is also suspended indefinitely by the NFL without pay. All this for a tragedy that wasn't completely his fault.
The pedestrian that was hit ran across the street, outside of a crosswalk, to catch a bus. Eye-witness accounts show that Stallworth flashed his lights and that the pedestrian clearly jumped out in front of the Stallworth's moving vehicle.
As wrong as Stallworth was for drinking and driving, who's to say that a sober person wouldn't have made the same tragic mistake? Stallworth was approximately going 50 in a 40 mile per hour zone, which I'm guessing probably half of the population does everyday while sober.
Stallworth also immediately got out of his car after it happened, notified authorities, and has shown what I see as genuine remorse through this entire incident. He also had no previous criminal record before this occurred.
The public should stop convicting someone by only judging the crime instead of weighing out all of the facts.
The NFL did do the right thing by suspending Stallworth because obviously Stallworth needs time to deal with his drinking and attend counseling for his alcohol abuse.
No amount of jail-time would fix this situation. Stallworth already has the worst punishment of all that no other court can pass down. He played a role in someone's death and will have to deal with that for the rest of his life.
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